ALMA BAND 8 CONTINUUM EMISSION FROM ORION SOURCE I

Abstract

ABSTRACT We have measured continuum flux densities of a high-mass protostar candidate, a radio source I in the Orion KL region (Orion Source I) using the Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array (ALMA) at band 8 with an angular resolution of 0.″1. The continuum emission at 430, 460, and 490 GHz associated with Source I shows an elongated structure along the northwest–southeast direction perpendicular to the so-called low-velocity bipolar outflow. The deconvolved size of the continuum source, 90 au × 20 au, is consistent with those reported previously at other millimeter/submillimeter wavelengths. The flux density can be well fitted to the optically thick blackbody spectral energy distribution, and the brightness temperature is evaluated to be 700–800 K. It is much lower than that in the case of proton–electron or H− free–free radiations. Our data are consistent with the latest ALMA results by Plambeck & Wright, in which the continuum emission was proposed to arise from the edge-on circumstellar disk via thermal dust emission, unless the continuum source consists of an unresolved structure with a smaller beam filling factor.